UK snow: Supermarkets left with empty shelves from panic buying

Bare: This was the scene at a Tesco in Cardiff as panic buying set in (SWNS)

Supermarkets were left with empty shelves today as panic buyers stocked up on supplies before snow swept across the UK.

Bread, milk and other essentials were all in short supply across southern Wales after the Met Office released a rare 'red' warning predicting extreme weather.

Staff described the hours of panic buying as "a crazy stampede" as stores had to put up signs apologising for running out of stock.

One Sainsbury's worker at the store in Pontypridd, said: "It was like there was a famine on, people were panicking, it was a crazy stampede of people just picking up anything they could and rushing out with it.

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"I couldn't believe what I was seeing, we had never had any kind of rush like that before.

"When the rush was over there weren't even any crumpets left, we had to make some signs to apologise to people."